Ride on, Highway Cat !!: Doggy dinner bell

DAY 10, Friday, September 4, 2015
Carcross - Whitehorse YU, Klondike Hwy 2, Alaska Hwy 1
Dist. 72 km. 21.7k. Avg. Ride time: 3:18, Total Time: 3:44 (some tailwind, easy topography)

The start of the day began with a quick ride into town for a few pics. My camp was about 1 km. outside the town on the hwy. Carcross looks more like a movie set than an actual town, although, some people live there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcross
Once I got out onto the highway and recited the 4 sacred words of Highwaycat; "On. The. Road. Again". I got a message from my camera about not reading the new memory card. So, now I was worried that all my pics since Skagway weren't being stored and all the following pics as well.. Also, the weather was starting to turn a bit and I was having some painful skin problems. (I'll spare the details) The only good thing was that I had a bit of a tailwind. The Gods of Hell were looking favourably upon my evil soul.
It didn't take long before I came upon the "Carcross Desert" This was a truely unique experience for me and hwc. We stayed for a pic, but that's all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcross_Desert
After a bit of riding on this crappy road (rough and pitted old asphalt), An SUV had passed me and after a few minutes, I could see him in the distance parked on the shoulder. As I approached him, I noticed that he was knelt down and had a large camera lens pointed at me. He was snapping pics right up until I filled his view finder. I felt like a pro athlete, ha ha. Perhaps a local media photographer. I had other moments of encouragement also. A guy drove by cheering "You got this!" or a wave from motorcyclists and tour bus drivers. I consume those nice moments and turn them into fuel.
Even when things are going well and there are rainbows and donuts circling my cranium, one needs to stay alert and focused on the task at hand. This brings me to the dog...
As I got closer to Whitehorse, the presence of human habitation began to emerge. There was a fenced off property that had wooden shacks, barn and several dog houses lined up in a row. As I slowly cycled by, the dogs heard me and came out to look. Like a Heavy Metal band, they broke into a violent frenzied wall of sound, in this case barking, not Marshall stacked guitars. They were tethered. While watching them to my left, I said to myself: "So long suckers!". Just then I heard much louder barking coming from my right. I turned to see another dog that was approaching at a high rate of speed. Big dark angry looking untethered beast was closing the gap. I pushed hard, but was losing the race. Lucky for me a car came up from behind and scared him off. My bear bell had turned against me, time to bury it. No more doggy dinner bell. Hwc will miss the dingaling-a-ling.
I said bye bye to the Klondike Hwy. and made a left on the Alaska Hwy. for a final push into Whitehorse. I headed straight for the Stratford Motel to see about a vacancy even though I had a reservation back at the River View where I began my trip. I didn't want to stay there again but will need to retrieve my bike box for the flight home. The Stratford is Smaller but much nicer for only $10 more.
This arrival completes my little circle route of Yukon, BC and Ak. Low in kilometers but high in human & animal relations. Lesson learned. Two more days in Whitehorse to be sure that I had annoyed every resident sufficiently, then it's 737 time. For now, it's local beer time.

Here are a couple pics of Carcross...